The Fundación Darién is a private,
non-profit, non-partisan Panamanian organization established to develop
and support programs of interest to indigenous people. The foundation,
established and administered by Native Americans, has a regional focus on
the Darién area of eastern Panama and the Pacific western lowlands of
Colombia. The Darién is the least developed area of Panama and a region
of large tracts of lowland, tropical rain forest. Portions of this forest
are protected within the Darién Biosphere Reserve and the Emberá-Wounan
Comarca, an indigenous reserve.

This rain forest, a resource of paramount
importance to the resident Native Americans, is quickly disappearing both
within and outside of the protected areas. The Darién region is populated
by several indigenous groups, the Emberá, Wounan and Kuna, who rely
extensively on the continued existence of this threatened resource. These
groups practice a traditional life-style of subsistence horticulture
augmented by fishing, hunting and gathering from the old-growth forest.

Philosophy

The Emberá-Wounan Comarca government,
created in response to the national government's pressures within the last
20 years, has had difficulties in responding to the many social, political
and economic problems faced by Native Americans in the region. The Fundación
Darién seeks to cooperate with the regional indigenous government in
tackling the multitude of problems that adversely affect independent
auto-determination.

The foundation sees the continued
destruction of the rain forest and disenfranchisment of Native Americans
from their traditional lands as a principal threat. The foundation is by
nature conservationist oriented and finds a natural ally with conservation
organizations. Yet the foundation sees wise economic development as the
key solution to self-determination. We therefore seek solutions and
support programs that wisely balance these two apparently contradictory
concepts.

Our traditions as Native Americans reach
back in an unbroken lineage to pre-history. Our traditions incorporate
complex systems of ecological and social knowledge that are highly
adaptive in our environment. We celebrate the values of our ancestors and
seek ways to ensure the continued relevance of traditional rituals and
beliefs in solving contemporary problems. Non-Native Americans often
misunderstand the value of our traditional heritage. We seek to interpret
and incorporate our traditions in the activities of the foundation.

The focus of the foundation:

Foster education opportunities for
indigenous people

Support bilingual education projects

Support development programs and
scientific research that promotes the wise and sustainable use of
regional natural resources. For example: agroforestry programs

Develop scientific and ethnographic
studies that investigate the value of traditional indigenous knowledge
systems and support programs that seek to integrate these systems into
current social contexts

Develop communication networks that share
information with other indigenous groups Seek technical, professional
and economic assistance from international development and
conservation agencies that share similar goals with the foundation

Assist local, regional and national
public and private organizations to understand the cultural and
ecological contexts in the Darién

Support programs that focus on the unique
problems of urban Indians

Investigate the potential of eco-tourism
as a development alternative

Projects

The foundation, incorporated in 1991, is
seeking experienced agencies who can help support our programs and help us
realize our goals. We are open to suggestions and can submit specific
proposals in any of the focal areas listed above. Our membership is long
on enthusiasm, motivation and human resources, but short on economic
resources necessary to support our goals.

Translation Project

This project, the translation of traditional
narratives and myths from taped Emberá recordings into Emberá, Spanish
and English texts is near completion. An indigenous artist is creating
detailed pen and ink drawings that illustrate the stories. This
collection of hundreds of pages of texts, apart from its anthropological
value, will serve as one of the very few documents written in Emberá and
translated into European languages. We hope its publication will
serve as a catalyst for bilingual education and foster a respect for
traditional knowledge.

Socio-cultural Research

Two founding members of the foundation,
Rogelio Cansarí and Daniel Casteñada, have successfully completed a
contract with INRENARE, the Panamanian government agency responsible for
managing natural resources. They undertook six months of
socio-cultural investigations within three regions of the Darién. Their
study focused on land-use, demographics and natural resource management.
The foundation supported their work.

Educational Assistance Program:

The Fundación Darién has lobbied with AID
of the US government to create an educational assistance program for Emberá-Wounan
students. AID favorably considered the proposal an invested thousand
dollars of educational aid. As traditional cultures, the Emberá-Wounan
lack the professional skills necessary to deal effectively with modern
problems; education and a development of a wide diversity of professional
and technical skills is the first step in creating effective solutions.

Ethnobotanical Project:

The ethnobotanical project has as its goal
an encyclopedia of economic and medicinal plants used by Native Americans
in the Darién. Much ethnobotanical work has focused on the plant
identification and isolation of active principles from medicinal plants.
We focus on the native collection, preparation and cultural significance
of the many species used by indigenous herbal specialists. We have
prepared a computerized database and coding system to maintain information
about medicinal and economic plants and have over 600 species in the
system. We have done some field work but much remains to be
done before we have complete ethnobotanical descriptions.